Notice Me Already!
by riinakuma
Summary: In this story, Haruhi is long-haired, ultra-shy, and never broke the vase. Oh, and after a little "accident" she hates Tamaki. Because of that, Tamaki orders the Hitachiin Twins, who are in the same class as her, to convince Haruhi to come to the Host Club before it closes for the summer. However, that may be harder than the twins thought, especially when Arai transfers over...
1. Introduction of Haruhi Fujioka

**In this story Haruhi never cut her hair, which is really long in this story, or broke the vase. She is also super-shy, and is always admired by other guys like in her middle school (Arai is in this story too, btw), but doesn't get noticed by the Host Club at all until she promptly starts hating on Tamaki every day after a terrible first impression. Because the twins are in the same class as her, they are given the job (by a desperate Tamaki) to convince her to go to the Host Club before summer vacation starts and the Host Club closes, but the task might not be as easy as the twins thought…**

Chapter 1: Introduction of Haruhi Fujioka

Thunder flashed and rain pelted the window, a loud yet calm, soothing sound. Haruhi Fujioka gazed out the window from her corner seat in the farthest back, right corner, away from the door, where a shadow always cast over her and smothered away her existence.

"Thank God there won't be thunder…but I forgot to bring my umbrella…" Haruhi mused to herself as she leaned against and stared out the cold window, her brown eyes two orbs of hypnotic innocence that had netted so much people without even herself being conscious of so. Lunchtime had just been over, and Haruhi nudged the bento leftovers (which she had eaten by herself in the classroom) with her foot, unconsciously wondering how she could get home without getting wet.

"Well, you should get going before the rain hardens, which it seems like it will do. Class dismissed." Haruhi jumped at her sensei's voice and her desk moved, scraping the floor with a terrible screech; but nobody she saw glanced her way as they filed out, all the girls chatting noisily about a common subject.

"Hey let's go visit the Host Club later!"

"Yeah, of course! I baked a cake for Honey-sempai!"

"I want to check if their new album came out!"

"Ugh! There's still almost an hour before the Host Club opens though…"

Haruhi glanced up and made brief eye contact with a pair of startlingly golden eyes before she glanced down again, blushing, since she rarely made eye contact with anyone, and began packing up her things, invisible as usual. Haruhi glanced out the window one more time before heading out the classroom.

Ever since her mother had died, Haruhi had been a quiet, shy girl that blended in with the shadows and spoke only when spoken to. She was a mysteriously silent beauty, admired from afar. Oh, and she had no friends. She wasn't very sociable, and nobody made effort to talk to her, and neither did she, but Haruhi didn't mind-her mind was always busy anyways.

After a few minutes she was standing below the ledge of the main building, staring at the rain and wishing for a miracle that she could somehow find an umbrella. However, she was completely unconscious of the several boys who kept on glancing her way and seeming to be struggling on the verge of starting a conversation, but failing each time and then glaring at the other boys, as if daring them to make a move on Haruhi before he did himself.

"Rich people," she signed quietly as she glanced at the limousines filing in and out of the school, picking up the students, who stayed resolutely dry. Finally, just as one boy decided to talk to Haruhi, a ringing vibration coming from Haruhi's bag interrupted him.

Five minutes after Haruhi answered the phone, she was walking through the still student-packed school hall. While she brushed water droplets from her record-long chocolate hair, which was never let down from its loose braid and finger combing her side bangs, she had a silent battle with herself trying not to be frustrated at her father for taking her only spare key and forgetting where he put it.

"Well, I guess I'll just go study then…" However, as she thought they would be, all three libraries were filled with chattering people, loud and unconscious of the people who actually wanted to study. Though Haruhi hadn't cut her hair and had contacts to replace her gawky glasses, she still hadn't been able to afford the uniform and therefore wore the junior high section uniform. Haruhi often received weird glances from other high school section students, but she was nearly always forgotten in a matter of seconds.

Finally, after several minutes of wandering around, Haruhi walked down a near empty corridor and turned right.

"The Third Music Room"

"This should be an empty room…thank God for this," Haruhi silently cheered and turned the door handle. A blinding flash filled the room, and rose petals flew out in an extremely excessive amount, nearly smothering Haruhi and getting tangled in her hair as she struggled to adjust to the bright light. When she could finally see again, her eyes met with a scene she would never forget.

"What the actual f-"

"Welcome to the Ouran High School Host Club"


	2. Noticed By Sempai

**When the twins are doing synchronized talking, I'll put the words in two sets of quotation marks like this: " " xxxxxx" " **

Chapter 2: Noticed by Sempai

" "Wait wwhhhaatttt. It's a junior section student." "

" "Did you announce that junior students could come here now or something, tono? You know that's really stupid, right? Especially since there's still 15 minutes before we open. We had to position ourselves so nicely too. It's not even someone interesting." "

There was absolutely no sign of any musical instruments, except for a piano in the far right corner covered by a large cutout of velvet. Haruhi had to resist herself from fainting when she saw the six people positioned in the middle of the room in front of her. One was a black-haired giant with sharp grey eyes, standing next to an elementary-looking kid with blond hair and childish face. Next was a cool-looking second year with glasses, standing next to another second year, this one blonde and irked Haruhi for some reason.

And there were the too noisy, _too _social twins from her own class, class I-A. They were near identical, spare some small details, with their golden eyes and auburn hair.

" "Why is she just staring? How rude is that?" "

Haruhi blanched and she turned around to leave without a word, her face burning and red with embarrassment. She was nothing like these six guys- good looking, rich, confident. She was just a shy commoner, unnoticed by anyone. There was no reason to stay and she wouldn't feel comfortable around them anyways.

"Wait! Where are you going?" A hand rested on her arm and Haruhi jumped. She turned around to see the annoying blonde, the one who was TOUCHING. HER. ARM. The shy girl let out a squeak and pried her arm away, stepping back against the door, her hand behind her back and on the door handle.

"Why are you leaving! I've never seen you before!"

" " Of course not, tono. She's a middle school student!" "

"No she's not, you idiots." Haruhi glanced up and saw Cool Glasses-kun push up his glasses and looking at his clipboard. "She's Fujioka Haruhi, class 1-A, Hikaru, Kaoru, in the same class as you guys."

Haruhi felt her heart jump and a word formed in her mind: stalker. Meanwhile, the "stalker" kept on talking.

"Hmm. Commoner-one with a lot of nerve too, to be coming to this school with a full scholarship, no other money, and wearing the wrong uniform and only because you have no money to pay for the right one. Popular among the other male students and rather unsuitable for this school, regarding family background."

"Oh, you are too rude to our guest, Kyoya." The blonde said dramatically, swooping forward towards Haruhi.

The blonde grabbed her hand and said "Don't pay attention to the cold demon, Haruhi. Without a doubt, you are so beautiful, you-"with a crazed gasp, the shy brunette jerked her hand away for the second time and resisted kicking him in the shins. Ugh. The blonde backed away, his eyes wide and sad, his hand on his forehead as if he had a fever while the two twins didn't even attempt to smother their laughs.

"Why, Haruhi, why! Is it because I'm too beautiful? But…I…oh! It's so unjust. Don't mind that I'm too beautiful for you…I see…so this is why you can't accept me!"

W. T. F.

Haruhi wanted to slap him, hard, and yell the prefect comeback that had already formed in her mind. But she wasn't brave enough. While the weird blonde-haired person walked around the room rambling, the elementary-looking kid approached Haruhi while the twins continued laughing at the blonde idiot waltzing around the room.

"Haru-chan, Haru-chan! You can call me Honey! Do you want cake or borrow Usa-chan? " He tugged on Haruhi's brown junior section uniform (away from the exit, Haruhi frantically thought), his entire being emitting happy sparks. And Usa-chan was really cute too! This was at least one person that Haruhi wouldn't mind being friends with…

However, what came out of her mouth was completely different from what she thought. "I…I…um…I just need to….I just wanted…wanted to study…" Haruhi avoided everyone's eyes and inched her way back to the door, trying hard not to be noticed. No matter what, this was more 200% more socializing than Haruhi was used to and she wasn't comfortable amid this completely foreign group. Haruhi reached for the doorknob and opened the door as fast as she could, but-

"Haruhi! I've decided! From now on, you can live happily- it doesn't matter that I have the best looks and you not as much! I, Suo Tamaki, swear that I will make your peasant's life wonderful, even if you are poor and a bit unsighl-"

SLAP.

Tamaki stepped back, the hand that had been on Haruhi's face now on his own.

"G-get away from m-me, you…you JERK. I-I-I HATE YOU."

After shouting at someone for the first time in her life, Haruhi slowly backpedaled away from the silenced group. She felt her heart hammering and her face turning red and (unsuccessfully) attempted to cover it with her ruffled chocolate bangs. Without a word, Haruhi immediately turned and ran out the door before anyone could see her expression and teary eyes.

As Haruhi ran out the front gates of the school as fast as she could and ignoring the stitch in her side while clutching her books, she saw a rainbow, and part of her wished it was still raining so the weather could match her cloudy mood. The traumatized girl ran home as fast as she could, her mind was whirring with only one thought- Oh Mother in Heaven, what have I done now?

**I promise I'll make the next chapter better! By the way, after this chapter, I'll only be publishing every Tuesday and Friday. This may change though, depending on how much time I have and the way the story turns out. But look forward to the next chapter, from the Host Club's point of view! **


	3. Plot of the Evil Twins

** This will be in the perspective of the Host Club and Haruhi will be mentioned, but she won't actually be in the chapter. Currently she's at home making tea and (attempting) to sleep ;) And because I don't want to explain let's just say that Haruhi…miraculously…found her key.**

Chapter 3: Plot of the Evil Twins

After Haruhi had slapped the "king" and ran away, the Host Club was silenced and even the twins had stopped laughing. The uncomfortably long and tense silence stretched on, each seemingly frozen host in the same position as they had stopped in. Finally, Kyoya pushed up his glasses and said, "The customers are coming soon. We'd better get dressed."

Business occurred as usual; even though Honey ate his cake slower and smiled less often, Tamaki added 20 spoons of sugar to his tea, Mori paid less attention to everything, Hikaru talked too fast and Kaoru too slow during their synchronized twincest acts, and Kyoya sold nearly half of the newly printed photo album collection 1000 yen too cheap. In other words, the first sentence was a lie and business did not occur as usual. All the hosts seemed to be a bit off focus and often got inquiries from the customers, but each one was waved off carelessly.

Finally, the Host Club closed for the day.

Even though it wasn't communicated with words, every host immediately knew what the other wanted to talk about.

Kyoya: *turns to twins* what do you know?

Kaoru: *shrugs* nothing

Hikaru: …

Kaoru: *turns to brother* Hikaru?

Hikaru: it's nothing…

Both twins: well, she's mostly really quiet, and *the twins look at each other* we didn't really know she existed…

Honey: can't any of you guys recall _anything _at ALL about Haru-chan?

Twins: well, she's obviously shy. We should try to relate her to people who are shy at first but then end up slapping tono *watches Tamaki get dramatically shot by [imaginary] arrows* and the only person who's done that is… *thinks of the crazy otaku Renge*…um never mind.

Kyoya: *pushes up glasses* even though she is a commoner, she may be trouble to the Host Club

Honey: how? Haru-chan probably won't ever come again.

Kyoya: *gestures at Tamaki* he's depressed. He has a 70% request rate, and customers will probably decrease 10% if he's depressed, because when I took a poll I found out that 11% like Tamaki to be cheerful instead of any other mood. And all of Tamaki's customers always buy the albums so, if 10% leave, 9.5% will probably stop buying the albums and products as well. That means that we will lose approximately *presses buttons on calculator* 72 thousand yen for half a year, 144 thousand a year. *Puts away calculator*. It's very bad business.

Hikaru:…

Kaoru:…

Honey:…

Mori:…

Tamaki: *cries quietly*

Hikaru, Kaoru, Honey: …how coldhearted…

Honey: *snaps back to reality* Tama-chan, just say sorry! She'll probably understand, since she seems nice even though she's shy. Then Haru-chan will be happy again.

Twins: nah. He'll just get slapped again. And "probably" _probably _isn't a good enough chance.

Tamaki: *stops crying*. Wait. That _is _a good idea….after all it is the Host's Club's job to make girls happy!

Twins: but you just made one extremely pissed.

Tamaki: Don't worry! *looks at the hosts, who all seem terribly worried (except for Kyoya and Mori)* I have a plan! Tomorrow I will go find her…no…she will surely come find me again!

Twins: he's not listening and he's and idiot. We give up.

Honey: -_- that truly is the worst combination…

Tamaki: …and that is the plan! Club meeting dismissed.

Even though nobody had actually heard (well, they absolutely could _not_ care less anyways) Tamaki's plan, they all knew that he probably planned something plain stupid that would get poor Haruhi wound up again.

As they left the room, Hikaru said, "you know, Kaoru, Tono's plan probably won't be fun."

"I think so too, Hikaru."

" "So the best thing to do is to proceed to plan B." "

Both twins smirked and, far away, in a certain apartment, a certain brunette sneezed and felt that a bad omen was coming her way. While on the way home, both twins discussed various ways to prank help Tamaki on his plan (which was rather useless considering the fact that they didn't even know what his plan was) and by the time the twins got home both of them were done plotting planning.

But it wasn't until Hikaru was seconds away from sleep that he finally realized who the brown pair of eyes he had glimpsed in the classroom belonged to.

And it would be many weeks before both twins would realize that Haruhi had unconsciously captured more than just their interest.

**Yay! End of the chapter! Though I think I kind of killed the mood with this comment… Anyways, I want to thank all the people who commented on my story cuz they were all SUPER nice and they always made my day a whole lot better ^u^ Look forward to Chapter 3: Haruhi's Crummy Day**


	4. Haruhi's Crummy Day

Chapter 4: Haruhi's Crummy Day

6:30 a.m.

Haruhi awoke and rubbed her hypnotic doe eyes sleepily while stifling a yawn with her other hand. She absolutely refused to wake up. To tell the truth, Haruhi had been awake for nearly two hours now and her body wanted to move but her mind and heart said no. She absolutely did not want to go back to school, especially since those creepy golden-eyed twins were there.

Devil Haruhi: just skip school! You can just fake sick since your father isn't home

Angel Haruhi: go to school! You can deal with them, Haruhi! Plus, you wouldn't want to lose your scholarship, right?

Devil Haruhi: SKIP SCHOOL. You're not noticed by anyone, anyways. Plus the teacher knows you're [normally] a good student and will definitely [probably] overlook this.

Angle Haruhi: but…Haruhi! What about your scholarship! Your career! Your poor father!

Devil Haruhi: don't make me laugh, Angel. You're overreacting.

Angle Haruhi: Haruhi, you know what's right!

6:43 a.m.

Haruhi had (grudgingly) put on her (which she thought was way too short) brown uniform skirt and had combed and braided her hair. She put her toothbrush back in her cup and turned off the faucet. Before she left the bathroom, Haruhi looked in the mirror. Her reflection was a beautiful brunette with a winningly shy smile and hypnotically brown eyes. But what Haruhi saw was an awkward, shy, unsociable nerd. Dolefully wishing that she was more confident and social, Haruhi whisked into the kitchen the make breakfast.

7:10 a.m.

After carefully putting the bowl she had used to eat breakfast into the dish dryer, Haruhi took off her apron and grabbed her bad, ready to leave. Then the doorbell rang and all hell broke loose.

7:15 a.m.

Outside were at least four cars, all black, and flanked by at least four people at each corner of the limousines. All this was too much for poor Haruhi's fragilely shy heart, and she had to grip onto the door frame of her apartment door as she sank an inch to the ground.

"Wow! Is that the mafia?"

"Rich people!"

"The guy said _Ms. Fujioka_!"

"Did Haruhi-chan win the lottery or something?"

As Haruhi stared on, one of the men opened the door of the limousine closest to Haruhi and said, "please get in, Ms. Fujioka. We are here to escort you to school. Ms. Fujioka?"

Haruhi had been pinching herself, concerned that she was either 1)going insane or 2)dreaming. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) Haruhi was not losing her mind but now she was faced with this group of obviously rich weirdoes.

"Haruhi!"

Haruhi turned to see the landlady, who was looking rather angry.

"Haruhi, what do you think you're doing? Creating such a ruckus in the morning! Do you not have school? You're making traffic and nobody can get to school or work on time!"

"I-I'm sorry, Ms. Landlady! I-I don't know what's going on either," Haruhi stuttered, still clutching to her doorframe and tentatively pushing back a huge bouquet of orange and blue roses that one of the people offered her.

"Who do you work for, anyways," Haruhi retorted, feeling quite irked now, narrowing her eyes slightly and, feeling her cheeks burn, desperately wanted to go back to her bedroom and sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep. And also to kick someone, if life was a person.

"Sorry, we're not allowed to tell you that, Ms. Fujioka. It's supposed to be a surprise."

For once, both Devil and Angel Haruhi agreed on something.

7:32 a.m.

After saying "sorry, I need to go", as loudly as she could (which really wasn't that loud) Haruhi had broken into a run. She felt like she was going to explode, her heart hammering and her face heated like the rays of summer sun.

Why her? What had she ever done wrong?

Ignoring the shouts behind her, Haruhi melted into the streets as she rushed as fast and naturally as she could to school, taking careful steps that concealed her in a shadow. She knew that she was rather obvious, but Haruhi didn't care. She wanted to just go to school, finish as fast as she could, and run home.

7:47 a.m.

As usual, Haruhi arrived nearly half an hour before school and she immediately ran through the gate and into the school. Finally, she got to her classroom. Haruhi bent down in front of the classroom door and panted hard as she struggled to catch her breath. She thought Monday had been bad…but this was terrible on a whole new level.

Haruhi wiped her tears on her too-long brown sleep and put her hand on the doorknob. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to enter the classroom or not, considering that there might be more trouble instead.

Devil Haruhi: skip school…..

Angle Haruhi: come on, Haruhi! You can do this! You're always early-there's no way those two twins or anyone could come bother you! In the classroom, you have the teacher! You're going to be just fine, Haruhi.

7:50 a.m.

Haruhi took a deep breath and pushed open the door- to find that Angel Haruhi had been wrong.

**I'm sorry I uploaded so late n. The computer wasn't working and I couldn't get access to . Well, I hope you enjoyed O~**


	5. The Second Gift

Chapter 5: The Second "Gift"

When Haruhi opened the door, she got what she did and did not expect. She expected the room to be without anyone, and she was right, but also wrong on so many levels.

The black chalkboard was nearly white with all the words written on it. Her name covered the entire chalkboard, and the empty spaces were filled with smaller fonts of her name. Blue and Orange roses bordered the chalkboard and traced over the big version of her name. Her desk was covered by a huge bouquet of blue and orange roses, and strings of the same colored roses wrapped around her desk and chair. Something hit Haruhi's nose and she looked up.

She nearly fainted at what she saw. On the roof, millions of blue and orange roses were arranged to spell out her name and thousands of pictures added to the roof décor. The pictures! Haruhi had no idea who took them and that they even existed. The photos were from her junior high graduation, her first few volleyball games, her field trips, and tons others. No two photos were, amazingly, the same and each was framed by blue and orange rose petals.

Haruhi sank into a chair and rubbed her temples. She was NOT going to cry again. Ugh. This MUST be some sick nightmare! It just had too… Suddenly an image flashed in her mind-the memory of hundreds of rose petals flying from a room…the six boys of that ridiculous club.

"It's them," Haruhi cried loudly, remembering the Host Club (loud for her but she was actually barely at average conversing voice level). But it was weird. The club was obsessed with roses, but those roses…those roses had been red. These were blue and orange. Red…blue and orange…host club…host types…very close…always work together…can easily access this room…hmm…could it be?

"Did the twins do this?" Haruhi wondered, and the realization came hard on her. However, she considered this for a moment and, being the innocent, forgiving soul she (mostly, at least 99.99%, I assure you) was, Haruhi said, "nah. They're mean, but not that mean. I bet this is just some mean trick from that Tamaki dope and the rest of his club members or something. But thank God I came to school early."

Haruhi looked at the whole room on a wide scale and gave out a huge, heavy sigh. She was still tired from running and now she had to deal with this. Without another word, Haruhi took the rose bouquets from her desk and set it onto the teacher's desk along with a quick note, transforming the prank flowers into a gift for her advantage. Haruhi glanced at the clock. 23 minutes. With another heavy sigh, Haruhi began getting rid of the flowers.

She opened all the windows and began using the chalkboard eraser to rub off all the roses on the board. The flowers had been taped on with tiny wads of duct tape, and they came off easily but left glue marks all over the board. "Whatever, I'll deal with that later," Haruhi said to herself, aloud, and began sweeping up the fallen flowers and sweeping them towards the window.

Next, Haruhi tried to reach the roses and pictures on the roof by standing on the desks, but she was short by nearly two feet. Unabashed, she picked up a broom (which was just magically there) and swept off the (rather nicely arranged, to tell the truth) decor, which was also connected to the roof with the same tape. The tape on the roof was sturdier, however, and took Haruhi longer to get rid of. They sprinkled to the floor, getting lodged in her long, loose braid and causing her to sneeze several times. These too she swept towards the window along with the growing mound of rose petals and photographs.

The room was nearly clear now. Taking a pair of tiny scissors from the portable sewing kit in her bag, Haruhi began cutting down the several strings of roses that were wound around her desk and chair. She also cut off the ones hanging from the wall, and these she tossed them carelessly towards the window. 8 minutes left.

Finally, she stepped into the nearly knee-high mass as roses and photographs piled by the window and began throwing them out the window. She tossed them high into the air and each time, they got carried away with the wind and blew farther and farther away from the classroom and into the huge courtyard. 3 minutes left. Finally, there were only a few handfuls of rose petals left, and these Haruhi swept up into a pile to dispose.

When she glanced down again, finally done with her tedious task, something shiny caught her eye and Haruhi bent down to pick up a glossy photography, this one slightly creased and bent at two of the corners. It was a picture of her when she was about five and her now passed-away mother. Haruhi was seated on her mother's lap, her record-long hair already growing quite rapidly, and laughing at a wild robin that had landed on her hand to eat the bread that she was holding. Her father was probably the one taking the picture.

Haruhi took the wrinkled picture and stuck it into ther pocket. This was one picture she wanted to keep. Even though it was a photo of her and her mother, Haruhi felt guilty for taking the photograph. She couldn't remember a lot of the things that she had done with her mother, and sometimes felt like her mother didn't belong to her- sometimes Haruhi felt that her mother was simply a star in the sky, too far away to reach but so alluring. Haruhi sighed again and tried to not think about her mother.

Being too tired to more, Haruhi watched the annoyingly beautiful rose petals flutter with the wind and get carried away, wishing she could do the same. Then maybe she could fly high and reach Heaven to meet her mother, to see her again and ask her the so many things that she had never had a chance to. Maybe. Just Maybe.

Suddenly, the wind blew towards Haruhi and Haruhi shut her eyes, her hair blown behind her and a few of the straggling blue and orange rose petals swirled around her in the wind. She coughed out a rose petal and, because of that, didn't have time to melt back into her shadowy seat when the first two people entered the classroom.

The beautiful brunette looked over her shoulder, her eyes watering from the stinging wind and the rose petals still stuck in her hair and one on her nose. What she saw made her want to laugh and melt away. It was the two Hitachiin twins, looking nearly as shocked as she had when she had seen the parade of people in front of her house in the morning.

Haruhi didn't know it, but the twins had expected Haruhi to be in her miserable corner or had ditched class, but instead they saw a rose petal-covered girl standing where the first rays of sunlight hit. (lol can you imagine this super cliché scene) They stared at each other for a moment before all three of them suddenly lost their composure and Haruhi turned bright red; both twins tried to speak but instead simply opened and closed their mouth super awkwardly

Before any of them could do anything, however, the classroom door slip open once again and more students, including the sensei, who looked at the unlikely group of three people standing in the middle of the classroom. However, she forgot about them immediately when she saw the bouquet of roses on her desk. In a matter of seconds both twins had been surrounded by groups of girls and when they glanced back again, Haruhi had already gone back to her shadow-cast seat and was barely visible.

That day, all but three people were focused on their schoolwork. Those three that weren't paying attention were each lost in their own thoughts. All three wondered if they had lost a very important opportunity, but they wasted their time worrying for nothing- after all, it was the undeniable truth that their next meeting would be one that would reveal much more that each one thought.

**Did that last sentence sound weird? Microsoft Word kept on saying it was really "wordy", apparently. The next chapter might be a little short, though, just saying, so please don't expect a lot *sorry*. . Anyways, thanks for reading and I hoped you like it ^u^. **


	6. Hitachiins' Game

Chapter 6: Hitachiins' Game

**(Get it? ENDER'S game? HITACHIINS' Game? I know, I'm hilarious and I just re-watched the movie this week so bear with me.) **

After another few hours of daydreaming and immense attempts of concentration, Haruhi found herself walking towards the breezy courtyard, still littered with a few of those annoying rose petals, to eat her dinner leftovers for lunch. Nobody ever ate lunch in the courtyard, like Haruhi's old junior high had done, since those rich jerks probably considered sitting on the grass 'dirty' and 'degrading'. Sometimes Haruhi felt lonely, but today she was happy with just her sushi rolls and her book, an English book that she was reading to prepare for her future plans.

Walking over to the largest tree, Haruhi leaned against the tree trunk and melted into the cool shadow, setting her book (it's titled _Ender's Game, _btw) onto the soft grass and the bento on her lap. She let out a huge, long sigh, and her mind immediately began whirring at full speed.

Was it the twins? They always came almost late, not early like this. They probably came to gloat and see her surprised. Nah, they weren't that mean. Didn't she have this conversation with herself already? And roses? Really? Hmm. White and red roses…why did they seem so familiar. And blue and orange. What was up with those two colors? Ugh.

Having split personalities like she did, Haruhi had a hard time thinking about problems that had no relation to logic and mathematics. She was extremely quick to the uptake about mysteries (she had read several mystery novels and nearly always solved the mysteries before nearly half the book read) but when it came to real-life problems concerning ACTUAL people and social problems, Haruhi was clueless and struggled at simply asking people for clues. (stop judging my puns.)

Haruhi's stomach grumbled, and her mind spurred to a stop. Food always came first. She unfolded the cloth tied tightly around her lunch box and took off the lid, looking at the perfectly made sushi rolls. She'd always had a knack for things like cooking and sewing, and her father was always very proud, but for some reason, Haruhi never felt truly happy when her father complimented her. Sure, she felt happy that her father was glad, and she always smiled, but the compliments somehow made her feel…empty.

The quiet brunette ripped open a pack of soy sauce and dumped it onto her sushi. With one hand she picked up her chopsticks and in the other she picked up her book. Like she did every day, Haruhi began to eat dinner leftovers and read a book by herself under the shade of her favorite oak.

However, no matter how hard she tried, Haruhi just couldn't keep her mind on the book and her food. Who would actually spend time thinking about her; to do something concerning her? Nobody in the classroom even knew she existed. Except for the twins, of course. Haruhi's thoughts were always contradicting themselves when she thought about them, since she knew so little besides their loud, distracting, and forward actions that they presented in class. And their obvious lack of respect. Haruhi sighed and looked down at her food. Unconsciously, she had already stopped eating and her book was on the ground. A sharp wind blew across the lawn, swirling those extremely annoying rose petals that somehow seem to never disappear.

Haruhi stood up and dusted herself off. She was extremely confused and needed some thinking time in the classroom, where the wind couldn't reach her. Gathering her nearly untouched remnants of lunch, Haruhi started walking back towards the classroom, oblivious to the two pairs of golden eyes following her.

"What I need is more information," Haruhi thought, starting to get into her detective mood. "I can probably do some research at home…The name Hitachiin seems so familiar."

In case there was someone already in the classroom, when Haruhi opened the door, she kept her eyes down and for that reason didn't see the two people coming one from her right and one from her left. When she looked up to close the door, she jumped and let out a noise between a squeak and a gasp. Haruhi was staring at a pair of golden eyes or, rather, the left eye of a twin and the right eye of the other. Without thinking, Haruhi slammed the door closed and half ran half panickedly (I just invented a word) leaped (lol can you imagine that though) to her shadowy desk. Haruhi sat down, panting, a hand on her heart, as a ring echoed through the classroom. Once again, the bell had saved her.

In a matter of milliseconds, the room was filled again, and the teacher was lecturing the class. Staring only at the teacher and the blackboard while desperately trying to cool down her burning face, Haruhi spent *almost* the entire class period focused on her studies. She just couldn't take her mind off the (mysterious?) twins and the host club and, without thinking, began to write down a chart of possible suspects and the little evidence she had.

Every now and then, Haruhi glanced at the clock, wishing time would fly faster so she could rush to the library (not the noisy school library, thank you very much) and do research. Finally, there were only five minutes left of class. Haruhi squirmed in her seat and kicked her feet back and forth, impatient to leave, for once in her life. 4 minutes. 3. 2. 1. 30 seconds…Haruhi sighed. Almost! She locked her eyes on the clock, so focused that she missed the announcement that the teacher gave and the end of class, and announcement that made everyone in the class murmur and whisper. And the bell rang.

Ramming all her stuff in her bag, since a good student does not clean up until she is dismissed, (Nerd logic) Haruhi closed her bag and made to get up- until 2 elbows leaned onto her desk and made her fall backwards into her seat. Looking up, Haruhi made eye contact with the same pair of eyes that she had just the other day, before making the fatal mistake of interacting with the Host Club. Haruhi glanced over and saw another pair of eyes; very similar, but not identical.

"Oh," she realized. "It's _them._" Even though Haruhi wanted to push them away or say something rude, she couldn't find the words or strength to do either. Instead, she just stared at the two pairs of eyes wordlessly.

"Do you have to be this unsociable?" Both twins were inches from her face, and Haruhi blushed; she wasn't used to talking to people so close, except for her middle school friends. Particularly strangers she had no intention of trying to be cozy with. She leaned backwards, away from them and tried to glare. But it probably didn't work, because the twins didn't look offended at all. Instead they said, " "Did you get our present?" " Haruhi must have looked confused, because the twins sighed impatiently and said, " "you know, the ride to school, the roses, and the lovely décor? We spent so much time on it you know. It was rather rude of you to destroy it all. " "

So it WAS them! That huge mess, the chaotic day…it was all them? UGH! RICH JERKS. With a quick movement Haruhi tried to get up, but all she did was trip on her own feet and hit her head on one of the twin's shoulder. " "Wow. Do not try that again, you'll kill one of us." "

Haruhi couldn't take it anymore. She already found out who the culprits were, but she still wanted to go the library and do a quick background check on each of the potentially dangerous hosts to make sure that she didn't get herself in unnecessary trouble again. "Let me go, you carbon copied freaks. I need to go the library to do research about each of your dark ugly pasts and find blackmail info," she obviously did not say. Instead, what she said was much simpler.

"Fuck off jerks. Please."

Instead of immediately leaving, however, the twins simply started laughing. So hard, in fact, that they each clutched onto a corner of the desk to remain balance as they wiped tears of laughter from their eyes. They each reached up to ruffle Haruhi's hair. " " So you do have some nerve after all! Must be commoner logic." Haruhi swatted them away.

" " Okay let's do it this way then. " "

" We'll cover our partings and mix so you don't know who's who," Hikaru said.

" And then see if you can guess which one is Hikaru," Kaoru finished.

" " If you guess correctly then you can go home. If you don't you have to come to the Host Club with us and get a life by actually socializing." "

"Fine," Haruhi sighed. It was really easy to tell which one was Hikaru and which one was Kaoru (though she sometimes mixed up her rights and lefts) but she felt rude for swearing at them so she had grudgingly accepted in order to compensate. The twins did look rather excited.

" I'm Hikaru," Hikaru said and, pointing at Kaoru, also introduced his brother. Haruhi looked at each of their eyes closely.

A few moments later, the twins' partings were each covered by a hat, and they started rotating around each other. In a few seconds Haruhi was dizzy from watching them move around and she blinked. When she opened her eyes again the twins had stopped moving and were smirking down at her.

" " Alright! Guess which one of us is Hikaru." "

Haruhi looked up and stared at the first twin's eyes, and then the second. The thing is, you never actually forget the first person you made eye contact with in a new school where your existence has been denied for nearly four lonely months.

"That one," Haruhi said softly, yet confidently, "to the right, that is Kaoru, and the one on the left is Hikaru." Haruhi knew the look in their eyes, which obviously read "wow she's lucky-she got it right." However, much like Haruhi herself, what came out of their mouth was much different.

" " Wrong! Left is Kaoru and right is Hikaru." "

Oh bother. Haruhi sighed and stood up, making sure not to trip on her own two feet again. Grabbing her bag, she whisked towards the door.

" " Where are you going? You have to come to the Host Club with us today! " "

Haruhi stopped in the doorway, smiling to herself. Those two idiots. Without turning around, Haruhi said, " I don't have time to mess around, you two. Just because your silly fangirls never actually tell you apart doesn't mean I can't. Lying's bad." Without waiting for them to speak again, Haruhi left the room, leaving both twins frozen and dumbstruck.

On the way through the hallway, Haruhi tried to contain her giggle but, after a while, became rather concerned over the least concerning things. Had she sounded cool enough? Had she made sure that they would never mess with her again? She'd never thought they'd have such a dark heart. Was she overreacting? [obviously -_-] She'd have to rush to the library and get some work done. Haruhi looked to down to glance at her watch, to find that it wasn't ther. Huh. She must have left it at home, though she could have sworn it was there when she was eating, or rather, emptily staring, at her lunch. Haruhi reached into her bag to grab her phone and check the time. Haruhi flipped it open (she really liked flip phones and the cute phone strap that someone special had given here. Besides, she didn't have enough money to afford anything else) and, when she did, saw that she had a new text message.

Haruhi quickly scanned the text, then reread it several times. Was it real? It couldn't be! For nearly the 20th time, Haruhi reread the text, her eyes wide. After making sure that she wasn't dreaming (which involved a rather painful pinch), Haruhi closed her phone and smiled; she had the feeling that, in just 24 hours, her luck would be improving rather dramatically.

**I'm sorry that I haven't been updating really often and the chapters are getting kinda lame T^T. There were lots of exams this week and I was sick for a few days. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as possible and I promise I'll update on time next week ^u^**


	7. Good Luck

Chpater 7: Good Luck

It was 6. In the morning. School wouldn't be open until another two hours, and the sun wasn't even out yet, but Haruhi was already up and doing something none other than what she did best at- cooking. It hadn't been more than just a few minutes ago when her father had run into the smoky kitchen, shouting that the apartment was on fire. Haruhi anxiously checked the clock again, hoping that she still had time before school started. Yep. There was still a lot of time.

Among cooking, baking was Haruhi's specialty, and so she had decided to bake frosted filling cookies, basically frosted sugar cookies with different flavored cream inside, as the special dessert. She didn't often eat sweets, and she really didn't prefer them, but today was a special day. As she hurried to prepare the main course (rice decorated with seaweed and sausages to looks like pandas, octopus pieces, eel hand rolls, canned peaches, and miso soup) , the star-shaped cookies (strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate flavored) baked in the oven and the fresh cream and icing chilled in the fridge.

Haruhi felt happy-happier than she had ever felt in a really long time. This was almost worth smiling for, and Haruhi moved around, feeling full of energy and a bit too peppy for someone working vigorously at 6 in the morning. Her father watched her from the door, smiling too himself and at the verge of tears. He barely ever saw Haruhi move around so energetically; Haruhi was always sitting down, doing homework or at the library and when she actually did stand up and walk around it was always with this dull shuffling that emitted a depressing aura.

The oven went off and Haruhi jumped; she had been rather immersed in her decorating and had barely noticed any of the sounds and sights around her. Hoping nothing had burned, Haruhi excitedly put on her oven mitts and took out the semi-sweet, buttery cookies; they smelled like Heaven in the form of cookies. This was the family secret recipe, modified several times by each generation to be better and better. Haruhi herself had made quite a few changes to it as well, to make it softer and all, but that's another story. Peeling each carefully of the wax paper, she set all 103 of the small cookies onto a rack to cool while she finished up the two bento that she was making.

If anyone else had asked her to make lunch for them, Haruhi would have felt really bothered at the hassle, but this time she was just plain excited and simply bursting with joy. Finally would there be someone there with her, like a big brother. So excited! Anyways. It was seven a.m. now, and Haruhi knew she should start getting prepared for school. With inhuman speed, Haruhi inserted cream into each cookie, decorated them with icing, and stuck them into the bag when the icing dried. Cleaning up and packing up the bento at the same time, Haruhi raced against time as school drew closer and closer.

Finally, all the preparing was done and, just like she had done just two mornings ago, Haruhi was looking at herself in the mirror, wishing so many things that she knew couldn't come true. With a small sigh she turned off the light, grabbed both lunches and her bag, and peered out the window (to check for trouble) before opening the door and setting out for school with lots of pep in her step.

*switch to the twins' point of view*

"Look, look! Kaoru! She's coming closer to the gate…Kaoru?" Glancing backwards from the window, Hikaru saw Kaoru frantically texting on his phone.

"What's up, Kaoru? Who are you texting?" Walking over to his brother, Hikaru glanced over his shoulder to see who Kaoru was texting.

"It's tono," Kaoru explained, his fingers still moving quite rapidly. "Since we didn't tell him about the plan, he doesn't know where we are and when he went to look for us this morning he found out that we weren't home. I can't let him get to school and make a huge ruckus like he always does, being the idiot that he is. OH WAIT NO HE'S ON HIS WAY. NO STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP."

"Wait tono's coming to school now?"

"Yes, he's just left our mansion!"

"OH SNAP NO NO NO. That's not good! Our plan'll be ruined! What do we do? No wait, tell him to not come to school and that we're at the commoners' market looking for lunch because we saw that it was good luck to do that in like the horoscope or something."

"You know how stupid that is?"

"Kaoru, he's tono! He'll believe anything." Kaoru thought about it for a moment before looking down at his phone screen again and began typing.

" Yeah, he's stupid enough to fall for that. Let's just hope that he doesn't meet Kyoya along the way somehow and figure out our plans."

"Alright," Hikaru said and walked back to the window. "You text tono back and I'll keep a lookout again." After scanning the courtyard quickly for signs of Haruhi, Hikaru finally spotted her getting closer and closer to the school building.

"Hey, Kaoru, come here and check this out," Hikaru called, waving his brother over. "She's got two lunchboxes. Why do you think she does?"

" I doubt it's for anyone at school," Kaoru said as he walked over (both twins shared a moment of sadness as they considered Kaoru's words, though they didn't realize it) and Hikaru added "and I doubt she'll eat all that during lunch. Do you think she's going somewhere or meeting someone later?"

" " But she's ssooo socially awkward it just doesn't play out right…Hmm…eh. Whatever, we'll just figure it out later." " Completely carefree again, the twins began arranging themselves in position in order for their plan to continue. Both of them stood surrounding Haruhi's desk, and waited, and waited some more. And waited some more. And waited longer. Finally, they came out of position and each stretched.

"Where do you think she is?" Kaoru asked, as Hikaru walked to the window. "You saw her walking into the school, right?"

"I don't know where she disappeared to," Hikaru called from the window, glancing right and left to search for Haruhi, but failed to as more people began to enter the gate and walk towards the building.

"Ugh, this doesn't make sense!" Hikaru said frustratingly, as he walked outside the classroom.

"Oi, Hikaru! I found her!" Hikaru turned to the direction of his brother's voice and found him looking out one of the windows that allowed vision to the place where Haruhi always ate her lunch by herself. There, underneath the oak tree, was Haruhi, sitting.

" "Is she…texting?" " There was a moment of silence and then, suddenly, both twins began to laugh and attract weird looks from many of the male students around them.

" "That's impossible, must be a trick of the light. She must have been reading a book or something." " However, when both twins glanced back out the window again, Haruhi was gone and they were surrounded by several Host Club customers, each trying to engage in conversation with the twins. After each glancing out the window again, the twins reluctantly returned to their seat, wondering where Haruhi had gone and where she was.

They kept their eyes to the door, and eventually saw her melting into the classroom along with a wave of students. Both Hitachiins made to stand up and yelled something, but their voices were drowned out by the sudden bell and the teacher entered, causing them to have no choice but to sit down.

Walking in after the teacher was a boy that the twins had never seen before, and the twins both turned when they heard a small, stifled shout behind them. They normally wouldn't care if they heard a girl make a big deal out of a boy, but the voice sounded awfully familiar, like…Haruhi's.

"Alright, class, chill and look towards the front. Today we have a new student in class today," the teacher announced and stepped aside. The teacher gestured at the boy, who had a rather short haircut and friendly smile.

The boy stepped forward and smiled as the entire class began whispering. "Hi everyone, I'm a transfer from the public high school and my name's Arai. Nice to meet you."

**Well, I hope you liked the chapter! The story is almost at its halfway point and, as a heads up, there will only be about 6-7 more chapters (or maybe a bit more) before the story ends.. Again, I hoped you like the chapter and look forward to the next one ^u^ **


	8. Lost

** This one isn't going to be a long chapter; it's more like a special chapter BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL CHAPTER 8 GOT ERASED. So anyways. This won't have much to do with the main plot and will be fairly short. I'm sorry everyone n**

Chpater 8: Lost

"Mommy! Daddy! _Hurry up!_ It's already 7 and we're going to be late!" Hand on hips, her already long, streaming hair tied into two braids, 5 year old Haruhi stood yelling at her parents while standing in the doorway with the door wide open and the first feeble rays of sunlight shining in.

Cheerful, sassy, modest, truthful (a bit too truthful), beautiful, and talented at so many things (including piano, violin, guitar, flute, dance, and singing), Haruhi was the ideal child prodigy, idolized by so many of the neighborhood children and the favorite of many adult neighbors. And, for winning the child division of the cooking contest (Haruhi made brownies), her parents were taking her out for a blissful day to the zoo.

Haruhi had only ever been to the zoo once, and that first time had mesmerized her as she stared in awe at the many animals that she knew only by picture books, and some that she didn't even know existed. All the while, from walking to the Bart station to walking to the zoo to buying the tickets and then standing first in line (they had arrived nearly an hour early due to Haruhi's careful marshaling), Haruhi was always grinning and jumping, nervous energy radiating all around.

Finally, at 8:30, the gate opened and practically squealing with happiness, Haruhi ran through the gates after passing her ticket to a worker and getting it stamped.

Haruhi had the time of her life.

From huge elephants to tiny tadpoles, Haruhi went to every exhibit, taking pictures of and with the animals. And, at one point, even met Arai with his parents.

"Come on, Arai! This way," Haruhi had shouted, pulling Arai with her as she weaved through the masses of people and looked for a place to eat. While Arai's parents went to buy lunch, Haruhi's mother sat on the side of a flowerbed, watching Haruhi and Arai buying bird seed from a vending machine nearby. However, no matter how much each child tried, they couldn't get a bird to land on their hands and eat the bird seed.

After a few more unsuccessful tries, Arai's parents came with the food and Haruhi sat on her mother's lap, holding a slice of bread at arm's length upon finding that there were several bird seeds, along with a particularly nasty-looking beetle stuck on it. However, before anyone could do anything about the disgustingly contaminated bread, a beautiful blue jay with a lovely plume of feathers landed on top of Haruhi's small hands and began eating the bread. After looking startled for a few moments, Haruhi began to laugh and call Arai's name while her father took a picture.

Even though Arai never managed to lure over a bird, he did pick up a smooth, freshly fallen peacock feather when he passed their huge living quarters. As they walked on, the crowd began to become thicker and thicker; there was obviously a popular animal here. Upon unfolding the zoo map, Haruhi and Arai discovered that the animal that had attracted so many people was none other than the classical giant panda.

Though highly alluring, getting to actually see the panda was a whole other thing. After taking only five steps, Haruhi was pushed down and landed on the hard concrete ground.

"Here Haruhi," Arai said and helped Haruhi to her feet. "Hold on to me and I promise you won't get lost. I'll be there for you!" Smiling one of his super nice smiles, Arai led Haruhi towards the mob of people and after several minutes of squeezing, Haruhi finally pressed flat against the glass and saw the pandas.

However, when she turned around to find Arai, all Haruhi saw was a crowd of blank and unfamiliar faces.

"Mommy! Daddy! Arai! Arai! Where are you?"

Even though her mother had told her that whenever she was lost she had to stay calm, Haruhi found herself panicking as she squeezed through the groups of people, struggling to stay upright and find everyone. However, no matter how much mistakes she made and how much she yelled, Haruhi couldn't find a familiar place. Haruhi was truly lost.

Haruhi squeezed her way out of the crowd and to a nearby bench, twisting one of her braids as she sat down.

"Mommy…Daddy…Arai…where are you…?"

5 minutes. 6 minutes. 7 minutes. Without noticing, thick crops of tears began to drip down Haruhi's cheeks, falling onto her little hands. She was lost, and nobody was there for her.

_I'll be there for you! _He had said…promised that he would be there to take care of her, yet where was he? He'd _promised her. _

To Haruhi, it seemed that several hours had passed before she heard them shouting-

"Haruhi! HARUHI!" Looking up from wiping her tearstained face, Haruhi saw her mother and father running towards her, with Arai, who had scraped his knee, looking extremely scared.

"H-haruhi, I'm sorry," seeming to be holding back tears, Arai held on to his own mother's hand tightly while Haruhi's hugged Haruhi tightly.

"I'm sorry Haruhi," Kotoko said, as silent tears streamed down Haruhi's face. "I'll never, ever leave you again."

Little did Haruhi know that the opposite of her mother's words were soon to become reality in just a few days.

**Overall, this was not a good chapter or a good day for Haruhi at the zoo. I'm really sorry about this, and the next chapter I'll try to type as quickly as possible. Thanks for tolerating my chapters and I hope you'll like the next one u**


	9. Stalkers

Chapter 9: Stalkers

" " So it _was _her. The one who made a big deal about that transfer commoner. And that's why she had the two lunch boxes." "

"They're probably just friends from the commoner's middle school, Hika-chan, Kao-chan," Honey said as he glanced out the window to look at Haruhi, who was, amazingly, talking, and eating with Arai under the willow tree that she always ate lunch at and then nervously at the pouting faces of the twins.

"Really close friends, it seems," Kyoya said matter-of-factly as he pushed up his glasses and wrote something down on his clipboard. "They went to the same middle school and they were childhood friends who lived as next door neighbors until Haruhi's mother passed away and the Fujiokas moved to the apartment that they now live in.

"Never mind that now, Kyoya! Look at this," Tamaki cried excitedly. "Look! Commoners! They're populating our school! Wouldn't it be fun to see where they shop and do everything after school?"

" " We're not stupid, tono," the twins said irritably as the glared at him, finally peeling their eyes away from the window. " We know you just want to follow Haruhi and that Arai guy home." After glancing out the window again, however, they added, "as a second thought we'd really like to follow them as well."

"Yay! We can go find commoner sweets and buy a bunch! Can Usa-chan come too?"

"I'm not going on such a trip," Kyoya interjected, pushing up his glinting glasses and taking out a checkbook. "I have some planning to do and I can't afford to waste so much time on this nonsense."

"Oh no you don't," Tamaki said and, a few hours later, all of the hosts were wearing casual wear (they had to force Tamaki to re-change into "normal clothes" twice) and following Haruhi and Arai, Kyoya being dragged along.

"Where are they going," Honey whispered as he peered at the chattering pair from behind a bush, Haruhi talking quietly, though still rather loudly for her, and Arai replying enthusiastically.

"The library, it seems," Hikaru and Kaoru replied as Kyoya continued writing on his magically appeared clipboard. "Since the two sit next to each other," Hikaru said in an extremely annoyed tone, "they can make extremely fast plans together," Koru finished rather passively.

"That can easily change, though, if you want," Kyoya said when he finally looked up from his clipboard. "The Ootori family has rather…_special…_influence when it comes to the teachers of this school."

" "Hmm. That seems pretty convenient….but also a bit scary," " the twins added as they thought about it.

"Look, look! They're going into the commoner's library! It seems pretty big for a commoner's library, huh?" Honey called excitedly as he pointed at the huge library, which they were now quickly approaching. Haruhi turned.

Almost immediately all the hosts (except Kyoya, of course, who's apparently too cool for the job of shutting up blondes who yell so loud that he's about to expose the entire Hey-let's-stalk-Haruhi-and-her-childhood-friend-because-we-can plan. I mean, he has three bodyguards and all) immediately almost jumped on Honey and while Mori clamped a hand to Honey's mouth the twins pulled him behind the corner and Tamaki did nothing but freak out. Which is still better than doing nothing but looking, I suppose.

However, in their haste, Honey had dropped Usa-chan and, as the twins peered around the corner, they could have sworn that they had seen Haruhi narrow her eyes slightly at the fallen bunny and then make eye contact with both of them before turning and waving off Arai's inquiries.

After waiting several moments after Haruhi had entered the blue-walled, seemingly window-covered library, and Arai had closed the door behind them, all the hosts stepped into plain view.

"All right everyone," Tamaki said as he removed his sunglasses (the only thing that he had refused to leave behind) "this is it. Be quiet, and don't attract attention." And the group walked into the library.

" "Wow, this is big isn't it!" "

"But the books are so old and thin, and there's not much here compared to even my private library. What a shame."

"I wonder if there are desserts here…"

"SHUSH EVERYONE. STOP ATTRACTING SO MUCH ATTENTION," Tamaki called. " LEARN TO BE QUIET LIKE ME. OH LOOK HERE COMES THE LIBRARY LADY. "

Before the librarian could say a single word, the hosts were surrounding her.

"Do you have any sweets here? Cake, if you can"

" You should expand your library, miss. Personally, my family has several books that they wouldn't want, and I would be happy to sell them to you for a rather low price. With interest, that is, if you can't even afford the cheapest book which is, incidentally, 6 thousand yen."

" "Have you seen a really shy girl with brown hair walk in with a creepy shady guy with ugly short hair and really shifty eyes?" "

"OH NO. HERE SHE COMES. Hide, everyone!"

In a matter of seconds, all the hosts were hidden behind a separate shelf (with the exception of Kyoya, who was sitting on a chair reading and ordering his files without a care in the world), leaving the extremely confused librarian spinning in circles and wondering where the troublemakers had gone.

Haruhi must have sensed something, because she tugged on Arai's arm (the twins started coughing rather violently until they were elbowed by some unseen force) to the other end of the library and set her things down at a table that had only room for two. The hosts could only see her mouth moving, but couldn't hear her actual words, so they each quickly rushed (with the exception of Kyoya, who was still sitting at his own lone table) to the other side of the library and behind a bookshelf that was stationed right next to Haruhi's table.

When they glanced over again, Haruhi was gone and Arai was the only one sitting at the table. Already looking around, Honey was the first to spot that Haruhi was at a nearby shelf, already with several books stacked in her arms and was struggling to look over them and pick her next books.

One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Haruhi was still meandering around the shelves, and Arai was doing homework. With several heavy sighs, the twins sat down, leaning against the bookshelf as they finally gave up trying to eavesdrop; there wasn't any conversation going on at all anyways.

And when the two childhood friends did start talking it was about Boston, English, scholarships, and transfers.

"What's so great about Boston anyways," Hikaru sighed, annoyed, as he flipped through several books that he had hastily taken off the shelves nearest him when he'd been waiting for Haruhi and Arai to finally start talking.

"Hmm. Maybe Arai's going to Boston or something," Kaoru said offhandedly; he was deeply absorbed in one of the books, his eyes never leaving the word-cramped pages and his mind clearly not focused on Haruhi and Arai anymore.

Hikaru glanced out the window and checked his phone; it was 4:30 already and he was bored out of his wits, and had nearly fallen asleep (which obviously attracted several weird looks; the librarian had decided to avoid any of the hosts because, as she had reminded herself, her insurance hadn't been renewed yet and it wasn't worth mingling with such shifty people) if not for the sudden scrape of a chair moving backwards.

"Thanks for helping me Arai," Haruhi half-whispered as she gathered her books. Straining his ears, Hikaru tried to get as much information as he could while at the same time shaking up his twin; he had a feeling that Haruhi was about to say something important, and he was indeed right.

"I really appreciate it, Arai," Haruhi said and gave him a small smile as she shouldered her bulging backpack. "This stuff will really help me which I move to Boston this summer."


	10. Mess

**I'm really really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really ****really sorry for not updating so long! In honor of you guys and also for an apology im gonna dedicate the next chapters to you guys. Forgive me for my lack of updates and this terrible chapter ;-;**

Chapter 10: Mess

The twins left the shelf drop with a crash, and quickly ran away before the librarian could come and possibly sue them. When Haruhi had declared her that she would be departing for Boston soon, Hikaru had stood up so fast that he'd overturned a book shelf, and he and Kaoru had to struggle to hold onto it to make sure it wouldn't fall down and alert Haruhi of their presence. Not that she didn't know already.

When she and Arai had walked out of the library (extremely slowly, for some reason unfathomable to the twins), the twins finally gave up on trying to keep the bookshelf aloft and simply let it drop.

"Let's go," Hikaru said, without looking towards his brother, and stalked out of the library with his hands in his pockets and looking extremely disgruntled.

"Wait! Hikaru! What about the others?"

His brother didn't reply and the two simply walked in silence for a while.

"…Do you really think she's moving to Boston?"

"Of course she is. Her dream is to become a lawyer like her mother, isn't it?"

"Yeah…I suppose."

The two walked in silence some more, and found themselves at the entrance of a small park a few blocks away from where Haruhi lived. But all they knew was that this was a commoner's park with a few children playing in it; they had no idea that Haruhi was fast approaching with someone that would forever change her life.

The two sat in silence and stare ahead at two around 7 year old kids fighting on the swings, one unwilling to get off and the other one near tears as he tried to tug his friend off. In the end, a girl on the only other swing set got off and sighed. She then smiled at the crying boy and gestured at the swing set that she had just gotten off and ran away with a wave.

"She's so nice," Kaoru said airily, as if he was simply commenting on the weather.

"I know right," Hikaru said in the same tone as they both stared off into the distance without really seeing much. "I wonder why she did that. I mean, it wasn't even her problem. Just leave them alone and get over with it already. And that one kid is such a crybaby. Kids these days…" Hikaru mumbled, and sighed. "Why do I even care about Haruhi anyways? I don't even know her that well. I mean, nobody in the Club do. All we want is to get some random girl to go the club because of that idiot tono."

"Why does that girl care about those two random guys so much?"

"Stop trying to be deep and stuff. Even though it kind of makes sense. Why DO we care? I mean, why do we care about Haruhi and what tono wants? This is such a pain."

"I know. We should just get this over with and tono we give up or something."

"Even though it's kind of only been two days..."

"Well, we usually get girls in five minutes, don't we?"

"…true. But still. Let's just get to know her more; that might help. I mean, she does seem super shy and stuff."

"No way, Kaoru, She obviously likes that lame soccer freak Arai way more. I don't want to do this anymore."

"How did you know he plays soccer?"

"…uh…I asked Kyoya-Sempai. That's not the point anyways!"

"…right. And geez, chill a bit Hikaru."

" Ugh. I just wanna go home."

"Won't you at least try to get to know her more? I mean, she seems nice."

"Oh please. Does she seem nice to US? She obviously likes Arai more."

"Oh, stop being jealous Hikaru."

"I'm not! She does like Arai better!"

Upset as he was himself, Kaoru almost laughed at his twin. "Hikaru, just think about it so-"

"NO! I told you already, I DON'T WANT TO. I…I just want to go home. I GIVE UP."

Ok, so Kaoru wasn't internally laughing anymore. He looked at his twin, who'd stood up and looked to be almost near tears himself, despite him laughing at the two boys fighting over the swing sets.

"Don't you understand, Kaoru? I know it's only been two days, but now we have no hope. Sure, we don't know her, but isn't that only because we don't want to? We don't need to know her, we don't want to know her. The people in our club never do. All we do is listen to their extremely boring background info and then try to charm them into buying our random shit. Why is Haruhi any different? This is all because of tono anyways."

Hikaru turned away from his brother, and stood still as stone.

Kaoru sighed, and stood up as well. "Hikaru-"

"Shut up."

"What? No me too-"

"No, really. Be quiet," Hikaru hissed, never turning to Kaoru's direction. Frustrated and annoyed, Kaoru turned to see what Hikaru was looking at, only to have all his stress evaporate at once. It was Haruhi, walking to her apartment with a very professional looking woman holding manila envelopes in one hand and a purse in the other.

"Who's that? She looks…she looks familiar, doesn't she?" Hikaru asked.

"Yeah…she does…dammit! If only we had tono with us. I remember seeing her once, but I can't remember. But tono was there, I'm sure of it!" Kaoru closed his eyes and began to pace, his frustration flaring up again. She seemed so familiar…so, so familiar…

"Whatever. C'mon, let's just follow her first. Isn't it weird that Haruhi's talking with some rich lawyer like her?"

"Not really…but whatever. Let's go!"

The twins, now completely (or nearly) renewed in spirit, sneaked towards the talking pair, with Haruhi thin-lipped and looking rather stressed (the twins wondered why) while the woman with her hair in a tight bun and her glasses resting on her nose talked to her. Her high heels covered the sounds of the twins still rather quiet footsteps as they dodged behind walls and corners and trees trying to eavesdrop before Haruhi reached her apartment, which was already growing perilously closer and closer.

"Just keep on doing what you're doing," the lawyer said when she and Haruhi was near the door of their apartment.

"But…isn't this a bit too mean?"

"No, it's fine. Remember; this is for their good as well, and besides! Your future can become so much better with this one offer."

"I suppose…"

"Well, if that's all, then here you go. Have a good day Haruhi." The lawyer handed a huge stack of paper to Haruhi and walked away.

"Have a good day too…" Haruhi looked around her and seemed to linger on the spot where the twins were hiding. "Have a good day Yuko Kosaka. I won't disappoint you and I will surely" Haruhi sighed, "I will surely destroy the host club for good."

**Haruhi's true intentions are revealed! Plot twists! Loose endings! I'm such a bad author! Well, I hope that helps you and gives you something to think about. The totally fabulous Haruhi secretly has a dark heart (or does she have her own, other secret intentions?) and is working for an evil lawyer? And the most important question is…WHO HIRED THE LAWYER?! If you read the manga you would probably know who Yuko Kosaka is but if you forgot or don't know pls don't search it up or think about it super hard so it can still be a surprise lol **

**And i'll go back to my regular update schedule now :D. which is once a week on Tuesdays. I hope **


	11. Chapter 11

Hii im back :')

Ok before any of you start yelling at me please let me apologize for not updating every tuesday oh my god and please hear me out haha. I know this excuse is overused and lame as heck but I have been extremely busy, with many things like volleyball and art and violin and stupid school work and multitudes of stress and personal problems that i'm still trying to get over. School will be over for me in a month (not completely, just summer vacation), and I'm going to use that time to rewrite all the chapters and tweak the plot.

To be honest, I have lost most of my obsession in ohshc, but it still remains one of my favorite mangas of all time and I still hope for a season two of the anime and for the manga to continue because dammit I loved the manga.

I've also wanted to discontinue this story for a bit so please do leave a review if you want me to continue the story, and suggestions to go along with it :0. I'll wait a bit, but if I really do have no more will to continue this story, I'll confirm it as discontinued and just move on :')

Thank you for those who've been supporting me since the beginning and please do leave a review.

hiyokotaku


	12. Thank you

Hello! Me again :)

I've decided to continue the story yay. Thank you to all of you who have left reviews, they made me so happy /and sorta guilty haha/ I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do but so far I feel like I should rewrite the entire story and republish the chapters? I dunno, because I feel like it'll be boring for those of you who have been supporting my story since the beginning and already know everything ;0;

Anyways, sorry for all these boring notes and probably bringing you false hope of a new chapter, but I'll announce what I plan to do in maybe a week or so

In the meantime, again thank you to all of those kind reviewers and people who have stuck with me so far,,,,,,

I really am grateful :))


End file.
